Police draw fire for handling of cocaine arrest

Man goes into seizures from swallowing 'rock' cocaine during arrest, after officers first took him for questioning rather than to hospital

By LEE WILLIAMS

When a Bradenton Police SWAT team stormed into his home to serve a search warrant for drugs last week, Stanley Jean started eating his cocaine stash.

That police knew Jean had eaten both rock and powder cocaine is not in dispute.

Many of the SWAT and narcotics officers who searched the home indicated in their reports that they saw white powder and crumbs in his mouth and on his lips. Several diligently tried to remove the cocaine from his mouth.

But instead of taking Jean to the hospital, officers took the 29-year-old to the police department and started questioning him. Several hours into the interview, Jean collapsed and started convulsing. Detectives called paramedics. Police have declined to release a video of the interview to the Herald-Tribune.

Jean's heart stopped at the hospital, his family says, but doctors were able to resuscitate him. He spent three days in intensive care. His doctor told his girlfriend that Jean is lucky to be alive.

He was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, and immediately arrested and taken to jail.

Bradenton police say Jean declined an offer of medical aid and appeared coherent, up until the time he lost consciousness and began having seizures.

Under existing policies, Bradenton's police officers are not required to take a suspect to the hospital even if they know he has ingested a lot of drugs.

“I don't think we have a policy that specifically outlines that,” said department spokesman Capt. Warren Merriman. “He seemed fine to the officers, and they asked him that. The officers thought they got all the rock out of his mouth at the scene.”

Now, Jean's family wants the department held accountable for not providing medical aid to someone they knew needed help.

“When he got to the hospital, he was not responding. They had to shock him to bring him back,” Jean's girlfriend, Chiquita Martin, said Tuesday. “The drugs made his whole body swell up. He can't talk right or walk. This wouldn't have have happened if they took him to the hospital right away.”

Walter Zalisko, a retired police chief and undersheriff with more than 35 years of experience in law enforcement, says Bradenton Police shirked their “duty” to render aid to Jean.

On the morning of March 8, Bradenton Police detectives Eric Williams and Robert Cubas conducted a “trash pull” at 1535 18th St. East.

According to their reports, neighbors in the area had complained that drugs were being sold from the home.

Jean has been arrested for cocaine before. Court records show an extensive arrest history, including more than a half-dozen cocaine arrests, as well as charges for marijuana possession.

The detectives found small bags in the trash containing marijuana residue and a suspicious white powder.

Police officers surveilled the home twice, and saw several suspected drug buys — visits lasting around a minute or less.

Officers returned March 15 and served a search warrant, announcing their intent by parking an armored car known as a Bearcat in the driveway.

Several detectives reported seeing Jean consuming some of his drugs:• Detective Shannon Seymour noticed Jean trying to swallow something as he was pulled from the home.

“I could see several small white chalk like crumbs on Mr. Jean's lips, which appeared to be rock cocaine,” Seymour wrote. “I then asked Mr. Jean repeatedly to spit out whatever he had in his mouth. Eventually Mr. Jean spit out a piece of rock cocaine and indicated that he did not swallow any more.”

• Detective Eric Williams wrote that another officer had seen Jean spit a white substance into the bathroom sink. Williams found powder and rock cocaine in the home, along with marijuana. Jean acknowledged that the cocaine was his. “After a few minutes, Mr. Jean spit out a piece of suspected rock cocaine,” Williams wrote.

• Detective Dennis French reported hearing a commotion in the front yard, after SWAT officers pulled Jean from the home. Jean was laying on his stomach, several officers were surrounding him, ordering the man to “spit it out.” “I then heard that one of the officers did recover rock cocaine from the subject's mouth,” French wrote.

After Jean was taken to the station, it was Detective Cubas who conducted the interview. Jean fell out of the chair at some point during that discussion. Cubas and other officers gave him a few sips of water.

“Suddenly, Stanley Jean began to shake and bounce the front of his face off the ground,” Cubas wrote. “This caused a laceration on his mouth and he began to bleed onto the carpet of the interview room.”

The officers held his head, to prevent further injury. Jean began vomiting. “Suddenly, he spit a piece of rock cocaine from his mouth,” Cubas wrote.

Detective Seymour wrote that Jean appeared to be having problems breathing. Paramedics arrived and took Jean to Manatee Memorial Hospital, where doctors pumped his stomach.

“If you read the reports, it states they seized two bottles of rock cocaine, which were placed into evidence, from pumping his stomach,” Capt. Merriman said. “He must have swallowed a lot of rock.”

The ACLU has taken action against law enforcement agencies when an inmate's medical needs are ignored, said Michael Barfield, chairman of the legal panel of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“There are standards — we are not talking about cosmetic dental work — serious medical need is something that can present itself to a lay person,” Barfield said. “Here, this should have been clear to any reasonable person that medical attention was warranted.”

Zalisko, the police-practice expert and retired chief, does not fault Bradenton Police for lacking a policy that would have addressed a situation like Jean's.

“It's difficult for police to have a policy on every situation, but common sense for any cop says if you ingest a good amount of cocaine, you're gonna OD,” Zalisko said. “They had a duty to provide first aid. It's not like he swallowed a small diamond, and they can sit and wait until it passes.”

Jean does not recall much of his arrest.

He denies selling drugs from the house, which he said belongs to the mother of one of his children.

But he acknowledged eating cocaine.

“I was scared. I don't know what happened,” he said. “I swallowed a little cocaine I had on me, and then five or six of them jumped on me, stepping on my neck.”

Jean believes he lost consciousness for other reasons.

“They was using unnecessary force,” he said. “I don't think that little bit of cocaine had me in there.”

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